It seems to be working long term this time? It' going to ebb and flow with the state of the economy but it's hardly dead.

When you have the defending champion's saying, “Following a strategic review of our motorsport and marketing programs we have decided to leave the FIA World Touring Car Championship at the end of the 2012 season to focus our Chevrolet brand activities in other areas", you cannot tell me that the series is in dire trouble? The defending champions, who destroyed the competition in it's last season, and would have likely done the same, exiting for really no real explanation.

That's not uncommon for manufacturers though. They're just as likely to leave when they win *everything* as when they're sucking. And not having three works Chevys might actually be good for the racing.

When you have the defending champion's saying, “Following a strategic review of our motorsport and marketing programs we have decided to leave the FIA World Touring Car Championship at the end of the 2012 season to focus our Chevrolet brand activities in other areas", you cannot tell me that the series is in dire trouble? The defending champions, who destroyed the competition in it's last season, and would have likely done the same, exiting for really no real explanation.

Just like Lancia did in WRC then, right before WRC hit it's mid 90's peak.

Lancia left because it didn't create any headlines when they won. Because, well. Lancia was supposed to win.

When you have the defending champion's saying, “Following a strategic review of our motorsport and marketing programs we have decided to leave the FIA World Touring Car Championship at the end of the 2012 season to focus our Chevrolet brand activities in other areas", you cannot tell me that the series is in dire trouble? The defending champions, who destroyed the competition in it's last season, and would have likely done the same, exiting for really no real explanation.

You know, factory SEAT left WTCC at the peak of it's utter domination... and BMW wasn't exactly struggling against Chevy either when they decided to drift off

The opening rounds at a very wet Monza yesterday saw some rather good racing and driving, with little of the usual dodgems antics and some quite skilful work dealing with standing water and difficult visibility. In the end Muller in the ex-works Chevy RML team was still dominant, but 2012 champ Huff showed pace in his new SEAT despite starting from the back.

For once, WTCC looked like world class motorsport compared to the spoilt brats over in Sepang....

Cars are so small and under powered it's embarrassing. Don't see what you get from it you can't from a GT series.

Touring cars are meant to be big or medium sized cars that have close banging racing, like the supertourer BTCC of the 1990s.

By that criteria, the only single seater racing should be F1, the only sports cars should be old school Can-Am Porsche 917 Turbos and so on.

Where does it say that touring cars have to be big or medium sized? They weren't when the Mini Cooper S was humiliating the Ford Galaxies back in the day. These are cars that we can all envisage owning (unlike pretty much every other form of racing). That's the point. As for underpowered, is 300+bhp such a small output? I reckon the current WTCC cars would outrun the Sierra RS500s of yore by an embarrassing degree.

The opening rounds at a very wet Monza yesterday saw some rather good racing and driving, with little of the usual dodgems antics and some quite skilful work dealing with standing water and difficult visibility. In the end Muller in the ex-works Chevy RML team was still dominant, but 2012 champ Huff showed pace in his new SEAT despite starting from the back.

For once, WTCC looked like world class motorsport compared to the spoilt brats over in Sepang....

Muller wins twice in a Chevrolet. Welcome to the new WTCC... same as the old WTCC.

Well, it is the old works team (RML) continuing with their #1 driver, so they should be at the front at the start of the new season. The point this year is that Muller has Tarquini and Huff in different cars that may well be able to challenge him as well as other coming up. So not like 2012 with a three car train of works Chevys clearing off into the distance.

I was watching monza r01 and r02... and i haven't been eatching much wtcc as of late, but i saw a laurie rig up front of the grid. Whats up with that? Is it just product placement or does it serve a purpose? Would be funny if they used it for a saftey car ^_^

Considering it gets to award a world championship at the end of the year, it is a thoughly underwhelming championship. The cars, the drivers, the events. None of it exudes the prestige worth something bearing the FIA World Championship title.

To have your claim to the thone taken seriously, you need to project that air that says "I'm a big f'ing deal" and gets people (especially the media) to pay attention. F1 knows how to do that. NASCAR knows how to do that. V8 Supercars knows how to do that. MotoGP knows how to do that. WRC used to know how to do that. WTCC doesn't come close.

Marrakech is always an horrible event. They probably have the slowest stewards and it's an urban track. Each year, its 30% of the race behind a safety car

WTCC is fine how it is now... if you put more expansive cars, you will have even less constructors and there are officially only Honda and Lada this year
But I heard they will try to increase the power of the cars for 2014 or 2015

Marrakech is always an horrible event. They probably have the slowest stewards and it's an urban track. Each year, its 30% of the race behind a safety car

WTCC is fine how it is now... if you put more expansive cars, you will have even less constructors and there are officially only Honda and Lada this year But I heard they will try to increase the power of the cars for 2014 or 2015

There were stewards from Le Mans, it would be even worse with domestic stewards...

It looks healthier than for several years, thankfully. Even though it takes us to such bastions of road racing as Morocco, Slovakia and Russia.

I usually think of Marroco as a WTCC version of Nascar, except Nascar has 100+ laps to make up the cautions. I guess every series need a weird venue every year.

Personally i think the series is on «positive transition». The chevys are now in reach and rumours persist that Citroen and Renault (engine- may be coming.

The trick is not allowing another Chevy stampede, but keep the brands happy.

What I don't get is why they are moving the Fords to america, feels like they are just dusting them off to run them locally next season. Not that Ford cares anyway, but I personally felt the cars looked good.

It looks Franz Engstler is also aching a bit after the accident. The more I see him racing, the more convinced I am the guy is jinxed. He seems to have an extremely high propensity to be crashed into by other drivers or safety cars.

I just can't seem to think if Honda would've gone for a younger number 1 driver, and muller getting a slower car. The champ would've been absolutely top notch. Now it's good races, but not any close champ. fight.